Tuning the metal-insulator transition inNdNiO3heterostructures via Fermi surface instability and spin fluctuations

Abstract

We employed in-situ pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to investigate the mechanism of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in NdNiO3 (NNO) thin films, grown on NdGaO3(110) and LaAlO3(100) substrates. In the metallic phase, we observe three dimensional hole and electron Fermi surface (FS) pockets formed from strongly renormalized bands with well-defined quasiparticles. Upon cooling across the MIT in NNO/NGO sample, the quasiparticles lose coherence via a spectral weight transfer from near the Fermi level to localized states forming at higher binding energies. In the case of NNO/LAO, the bands are apparently shifted upward with an additional holelike pocket forming at the corner of the Brillouin zone. We find that the renormalization effects are strongly anisotropic and are stronger in NNO/NGO than NNO/LAO. Our study reveals that substrate-induced strain tunes the crystal field splitting, which changes the FS properties, nesting conditions, and spin-fluctuation strength, and thereby controls the MIT via the formation of an electronic order parameter with QAF ∼(1/4, 1/4, 1/4±δ).

Anomalous electron transport in epitaxial NdNiO3 films

“…Using the DFT band structures we calculate the electron-electron correlation via the momentum resolved density fluctuation (MRDF) theory [2][3][4][5] which includes momentum dependent self-energy effect due to density-density correlations. The MRDF method is outlined below.…”

Electronic structure of buried LaNiO3 layers in (111)-oriented LaNiO3/LaMnO3 superlattices probed by soft x-ray ARPES

“…However, the small electron escape depth in VUV-ARPES experiments has limited most studies to the top layer of oxide thin films. 2,[9][10][11] Most members of the nickel based perovskite oxides RNiO 3 (R is a trivalent rare earth element) exhibit a metal-to-insulator transition as a function of temperature. [12][13][14][15] In addition, a transition from a paramagnetic to an antiferromagnetic ground state is observed in these compounds.…”

Volume Resistive Switching in metallic perovskite oxides driven by the Metal-Insulator Transition

“…In the former case, conducting electrons/holes hop from transition metal to transition metal, while in the latter the conduction takes place by electron/hole hopping from transition metal to oxygen to transition metal. In both cases, a metal insulator transition (MIT) is induced and can be tuned either by controlling the bandwidth (e.g., by changing interatomic distances (cation substitution [68], pressure [69], strain [70][71][72]) or temperature) or by controlling the band-filling (chemical doping [56,73], application of an electric field [50,56]). MIT in cuprates [74,75] and manganites [76] is mostly controlled by the bandfilling mechanism whereas in rare-earth nickelates a bandwidth-control of the MIT [68,72,77] can be easily achieved .…”

“…Physical methods such as pulsed laser deposition and radio-frequency sputtering have been commonly used to obtain rare earth nickelates (RENO) [72,78,100,160]. However, methods relying on chemical solutions have the advantage of giving a high level of control over the stoichiometry of the sample, besides being a low cost and scalable methodology.…”